Lake County Biographies
HON. GEORGE M. HANSON
This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
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The life of this gentleman was a long and eventful one. His California history
is familiar to many of the first immigrants to this State. As he was not only
one of the early immigrants to this coast, but also a pioneer of the Clear Lake
region, we cannot give a complete chronicle of the early history of Lake County
without the assistance of Mr. Hanson�s experiences here. George M. Hanson,
whose portrait will be found in the body of this work, was born in Tazewell
County, Virginia, March 13, 1799. In the year 1819 he married Miss Polly
Ellington, at Lebanon, Russell County, Virginia, and became the father of seven
sons and three daughters, all of whom reached the age of maturity, and six of
whom survive him. His oldest and only living daughter is Elizabeth, the wife of
Captain J. G. Allender, of Watsonville. His sons now living are, William P., an
early settler of this county, now a resident of Willows, Colusa County; Nathan
E., James Francis, Daniel A. and David M., all of whom are at present and for
many years have been living among the scenes of Clear Lake. For twenty-six
years Frank has lived on his present ranch at the head of Long Valley. Two
years after his marriage the subject of this sketch moved to Kentucky and
engaged in the mercantile business for a short time; thence he emigrated to
Clark County, Illinois, at that time a wild, unsettled country, and there lived
for twenty-five years, much of that time being spent in public life. Being a
man of exemplary habits and scrupulous integrity, his worth was soon recognized
in his community, and he was directly called to serve as a legislator. He soon
became prominent, and was regarded by all as one of the leading men in the halls
of legislation. He served twelve consecutive years in the House and Senate of
Illinois, and was intimately acquainted and associated with the men who
subsequently became so famous in the history of that State and of the nation.
He was in the Senate of Illinois at the time Abraham Lincoln made his first
appearance as a legislator, and his reminiscences of the Abraham Lincoln and
Stephen A. Douglas of that day were of peculiar interest. During the year 1847
Mr. Hanson visited Texas, and traveled all over that State on a tour of
inspection with the view of moving there and making a permanent settlement
should the country suit him. Not being favorably impressed with it, however, he
returned home, and the following year began preparations for a trip across the
continent with his family, having then in view the territory of Oregon, which
country at that time was attracting considerable attention. Before he started,
however, the news of the discovery of gold in California came and changed his
plans. In April, 1849, Mr. Hanson drove out of Coles County, Illinois, with
three ox-teams, and a family carriage drawn by horses, headed for the new El
Dorado of the Pacific. His ox-teams were loaded with an assorted stock of goods
of several thousand dollars� value which he thought would be suited to the
requirement of the miners of �49. Emigrants of that day rendezvoused at
Independence, Missouri, where they formed themselves into companies consisting
generally of thirty or forty teams, which were called trains, each train
electing a captain, whose duty it was to take a general rule and direction of
all matters connected with the interests of the company, and to facilitate as
much as possible their journey to the land of gold and anticipated fortunes.
The train with which Mr. Hanson cast his lot consisted of about one hundred
persons, having only three women � Mrs. George M. Hanson, his daughter Mrs.
Sidney Linder, and Mrs. John Armstrong � and about one dozen children, with an
aggregate of some thirty-five wagons and teams, and a few extra oxen and milch
cows, which were driven in front of the train of wagons that followed at
specified distances apart as regulated by the captain. John G. Allender, who
after his arrival at California became a son-in-law of Mr. Hanson, was duly
elected captain of this train. Owing to his experience with teams, his peculiar
social qualities and unrivaled memory of past events, he became very popular and
never failed to interest and entertain his company around the camp-fires. The
objects the emigrants had in thus traveling in companies was protection against
hostile and predatory Indians, and mutual assistance when difficulties had to be
met and overcome. We will not attempt to follow Mr. Hanson across the Rocky
Mountains, the burning desert sands, and over the lofty Sierras, and relate the
thrilling incidents of that early emigration, or portray the trying vicissitudes
that so frequently beset his path. Suffice it to say that after untold trials,
hardships and suffering he arrived at Yuba City, Sutter County, in the month of
November, 1849, in destitute circumstances, having lost and left everything in
the mountain fastnesses and snows of the Sierras. At Yuba City he, for a short
time, kept a hotel; then built a ferry boat, connecting Yuba City and Marysville
across the Feather River. Within two or three years he built a bridge across
the river at a cost of $30,000, which was carried away by the floods a few years
thereafter. He then sold an interest in his toll franchise to John C. Fall, of
Marysville, and together they built, at a very heavy cost, another bridge. This
was very valuable property, the receipts of toll being from $75 to $150 per
diem. A few years after this, by an Act of Legislature, the authorities of the
county were authorized to erect a free bridge, in the face of the franchise held
by Mr. Hanson, which was granted him for a period of twenty years, guaranteeing
him protection of the same. Politically Mr. Hanson had ever been an old line
Whig, and when the Republican party came into existence, and held its National
Convention in 1856, at Philadelphia, at which John C. Fremont was nominated for
President, Mr. Hanson attended that body as a delegate from California. At that
convention Mr. Hanson paid the lamented Lincoln a tribute of respect by putting
his name before that body as a candidate for Vice-President, at the same time
addressing a pleasant compliment towards him. The following National Convention
of that party having nominated Mr. Lincoln for President, Mr. Hanson was a warm
and active supporter of that ticket. He made his influence felt upon the stump
and in the columns of political papers. Mr. Hanson was a very effective, ready
debater, and clear and forcible writer. But few men of his day were better read
in general politics, and who more clearly understood the system and ideas of our
form of government. After Mr. Lincoln�s election Mr. Hanson was notified by
that distinguished gentleman that he was wanted to discharge the duties of some
governmental office on this coast by the incoming administration.
Notwithstanding his repeated assertions to the President that he was not
desirous of official position, Mr. Lincoln, unsolicited, sent him a commission
as Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the Northern District of California,
which office he entered upon and discharged the duties of during that
administration. After the assassination of Abraham Lincoln Mr. Hanson retired
to private life again, and although his accumulated years admonished him to
forsake the pursuits of active life, his restless spirit and indomitable energy
induced him to again resume business. He then, in company with his youngest
son, David M., a lawyer, went into the newspaper business, publishing the Clear
Lake �Sentinel,� Sutter County �Sentinel,� Marysville �Evening Telegraph,�
�Daily Appeal,� and finally the Gilroy �Advocate,� which publication ended his
long and active career in business. Mr. Hanson was among the first white men
who penetrated the Coast Range Mountains as far as Clear Lake. Having a large
family of sons, most of whom had grown to man�s estate, he was desirous of
finding homes for them and settling down to some steady pursuit. In 1853 or
1854, it was, that Mr. Hanson came in sight of the waters of Clear Lake, and
after thoroughly prospecting the country, concluded that this was the very place
he was looking for to find homes for his boys. He first settled them at Upper
Lake, on Middle Creek and its vicinity, stocking their several places with
horses, cattle, and hogs. While en route to the lake over the pathless
mountains just west of Wilbers Sulphur Springs, on evening, Mr. Hanson shot and
killed an enormous grizzly bear. This was near the head of what has ever since
been known as �Grizzly Canon,� through which an excellent county road now
passes, and from which incidents that canon and road derives the name of
�Grizzly Canon�. In those early times large game was very abundant in this
country. The pioneers could at all hours of the night hear the savage snarling
and deep growling of the grizzly, with the piercing scream of the panther or
California lion. The Hanson boys have seen as many as fifty deer in a drove,
hundreds of elk in a bank, ad the killing of grizzly bears and California lions
was of such common occurrence as to attract no attention whatever. Since the
year 1854, Mr. Hanson�s sons have lived on and in the vicinity of Clear Lake,
and this county has had for him in consequence thereof, all the attractions of a
home. His visits hither, when not permanently settled, were of yearly
occurrence until 1874. After he had retired from business, he came to Lake
County, the scene of his many early and exciting adventures, to live among his
children and grand-children, and in its salubrious climate pass the few
remaining days of his life. In 1877, the great affliction of his life in the
shape of physical infirmity befell him. He lost his eyesight and became almost
absolutely blind from cataract. This to him was an inconsolable bereavement, as
it deprived him of the ability to read and write, in which occupations he had
taken his greatest pleasure. This affliction so worked and wore upon him that
his health rapidly began to decline. He became helpless, and that fact so
embarrassed him that life almost became a burden. His spirit of independence
that had been a characteristic with him, and sustained him throughout his long
life, was now utterly crushed, and he regarded his fast approaching dissolution
with calm, Christian resignation. He had been a member of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, and a respected member of the Masonic fraternity for more than
fifty years, and we might safely say that no man ever lived more in consistence
with his religious professions and fraternal tenets than did George M. Hanson
for a half century of time. In July, 1879, he was taken with pneumonia which
baffled the skill of his physicians. In a very few days it was evident that his
career on earth must end. His children and grand-children were quickly summoned
to attend that awful and solemn event. He was at the house of one of his sons
in Long Valley, surrounded by weeping relatives and friends, and at about 9
o�clock P.M. on the 1st day of August, amid the heart-sobs of his devoted
children and grand-children, the spirit of this good old man went back to the
God who sent it to earth.
History of Napa and Lake Counties, California, publ. 1881 � pg. 247-250